Definition of Encumber

1.v. t. To impede the motion or action of, as with a burden; to retard with something superfluous; to weigh down; to obstruct or embarrass; as, his movements were encumbered by his mantle; his mind is encumbered with useless learning.

Definition of Encumber

1. Verb. (transitive) to load down something with a burden ¹

2. Verb. (transitive) to restrict or block something with a hindrance or impediment ¹

3. Verb. (transitive) to add a legal claim or other obligation ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Encumber

1. to hinder in action or movement [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Encumber Pictures

Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Encumber Images

Literary usage of Encumber

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1.South Eastern Reporter by West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, West Publishing Company, South Carolina Supreme Court (1909)"... that they will execute such further assurances of the said lands as may be
requisite, and that they have done no act to encumber the said lands. ..."

2.The Encyclopædia of Pleading and Practice: Under the Codes and Practice Acts by William Mark McKinney, Thomas Johnson Michie (1901)"They unnecessarily encumber the record and are properly expunged on motion.
(2) General Issue and Special Pleas — In General. ..."

3.The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann, Edward Aloysius Pace, Condé Bénoist Pallen, Thomas Joseph Shahan, John Joseph Wynne (1913)"For the same reason, and proportionately, a thousand small sects have failed,
whose names still encumber the pages of church history, but whose tenets ..."

4.The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States by United States Dept. of State, Francis Wharton, John Bassett Moore (1889)"We do not mean to encumber you with a cargo wbich will obstruct the, sailing of
your ship or will impede her fighting; but if, ..."

5.Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to Natural Theology by William Buckland (1841)"As it would encumber the section to express Diluvium, wherever it is present, it
is introduced in one place only, which shows its age to be more recent than ..."